SE Asian countries must secure borders: U.S.

SE Asian countries must secure borders: U.S.

Associated Press, Kuala Lumpur

The United States wants to help Southeast Asian countries boost
border security to block terrorists from sheltering in the
region, a U.S. State Department official said on Monday.

"We're trying to make efforts to do that and it's a big
priority," said David Asher, a senior adviser for the U.S. State
Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

Asher said that U.S. authorities would work with Southeast
Asian military and coast guard forces to improve border patrols -
if governments sought such cooperation.

"It's a consensual initiative, not something that's
unilateral," Asher told reporters on the sidelines of a
conference of security officials and academics in Kuala Lumpur.
"The more we work together, the more likely we'll be to succeed
and stop some sort of terrible action from occurring in the
future."

Asher praised countries such as Malaysia for responding
"impressively" to the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism, but
added that all governments should "work much harder" to foil
potential security threats.

Separately at the conference, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi urged countries in the Asia-Pacific region
to build security through talks, not bigger armories.

"Military stakes are being raised dangerously in the region
and around the world," Abdullah said in a speech to open the
Asia-Pacific Round-table, an annual gathering organized by
Malaysia's Institute of Strategic and International Studies.

"Overwhelming military power will not solve all problems or
yield the security we seek," Abdullah said. "It will not deter or
protect against terror, instead it merely aggravates suspicion
and tensions between countries."

He cited tensions between China and Taiwan and between North
Korea and South Korea.